The present invention relates generally to oil well rig operations and, more particularly, to efficiently and reliably monitoring and processing pre-processed sensor data from a location apart from the rig site.
Monitoring and analysis of downhole telemetry and rig site data requires monitoring of the telemetry and acquisition system hardware and software to ensure that equipment at the rig site is operating properly. Specifically, a field engineer is typically located at the rig site to rapidly verify that telemetry and surface sensor data are acquired, demodulated, decoded, and processed properly. The engineer is typically at the rig site to use software to extract the information about operation from the acquired data and to provide the information about operation sent by the downhole tools or other surface information to clients for real time drilling and well control. Also, the engineer is able to identify and correct any operational or hardware problems immediately. Further, a monitoring system that enables real time control and adjustment of the sensors, hardware, and software often requires an experienced engineer at the location of the equipment to efficiently and accurately interpret what the rig site telemetry and surface sensor data indicates about operation.
Experienced engineers are costly resources that are often too valuable to be deployed to a single oil rig site for extensive periods of time. Indeed, the cost of dedicating one or more experienced engineer to a rig site is also a safety concern. In situations where an engineer's knowledge and experience are valuable, company management often desires to reduce the amount of time engineers spend at any one rig site.
According to systems used prior to the present disclosure, a final display of processed data modulated at the rig site is the extent of data that is viewable remotely (relative to the rig site) due to bandwidth limitations. In fact, due to bandwidth limitations, such a display at a location apart from the rig site may merely allow Operations Support Center personnel to view the final display of data, but does not enable active manipulation of data and troubleshooting that is often needed when errors on the display are identified. Such a display may also suffer from interruptions and slowdowns in data transmission due at least partially to the size of the processed telemetry and surface sensor data and limitations in satellite transmission rates, further complicating and delaying real time monitoring and control, which is desirable to operate oil well rig sites.